Covid crises reduced presence of women experts in mass media - IMI

The presence of women experts and heroines cited in mass media is very susceptible to some external factors. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine restrictions last year have reduced the presence of women, including women experts, in online media by 5%. The executive director of the Institute of Mass Information Oksana Romanyuk told about it in the #OneVoice program, as Zmina human rights center reported.

Oksana Romanyuk said that today, after the election, the percentage of women's presence has backslid on again. 

She added that the women presence had been increased only during the 2020 local elections.

At the same time, commenting on the representation of women experts on television channels and talk shows, Maryna Dovzhenko, the columnist for “Detektor Media”  noted that most female experts were government spokeswomen, psychologists or astrologists. And industries such as economics, business and law are practically not represented by women experts.

According to Maryna Dovzhenko, the percent of women in TV shows ranges within 22%. Most women during February 2021 were represented in such programs as "Echo of the Nation" on "Pryamyy" and "Countdown" on "UA:PBC".

"UA:PBC" tries to involve as many women experts, women heroines and women presenters, to make them play an equal with men role. This model should be used by other talk shows,” she added.

For her part, the coordinator of the Volyn Press Club, Bohdana Stelmakh, said that in the regional media the district newspapers, radio and websites the reality is completely opposite: the more local is the media outlet, the more the female experts are present there.

“Our monitoring showed that the presence of women in hyper-local media is much higher and, as we have seen, the most gender-balanced. They abide a great deal by the gender balance, ”Stelmakh said.

At the same time, at the regional level, she noted, this is the contrary: the higher the level of the media, the fewer are seen the women experts.